Cyprus Achieves Lowest Inflation Rate In European Union Amid Easing Price Pressures

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

December 18, 2025

Cyprus Leads With Cooling Inflation

Cyprus has emerged as the European Union’s standout economy for price stability, recording the lowest annual inflation rate in November 2025, according to Eurostat. This significant easing in consumer price pressure offers a counterpoint to the broader, steady inflation trends observed across the euro area.

Eurozone And European Union Overview

Within the euro area, annual inflation held at 2.1% in November 2025, unchanged from October and slightly below the 2.2% figure reported a year earlier. Across the EU, the annual rate decelerated to 2.4%, down from 2.5% in October and consistent with rates recorded in the same month of the previous year.

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Diverging Inflation Trends Across Member States

Cyprus distinguished itself with an annual inflation rate of just 0.1%, reflecting a pronounced moderation in consumer prices. France and Italy reported lower-than-average rates at 0.8% and 1.1% respectively, while Romania led the bloc with a staggering 8.6%, followed by Estonia at 4.7% and Croatia at 4.3%. Such disparities underscore the diverse economic dynamics at play within EU member states.

Sectoral Drivers And Inflation Dynamics

Data indicates that, within the euro area, services were the primary contributor to inflation, adding 1.58 percentage points to the overall rate. Meanwhile, the combined effect of food, alcohol, and tobacco contributed an additional 0.46 percentage points, with non-energy industrial goods adding 0.14 percentage points. Energy prices exerted a modest dampening effect, reducing the inflation rate by 0.04 percentage points. These figures illustrate both the persistent nature of inflationary pressures in certain sectors and the softening prices observed in others.

Concluding Insights

The latest Eurostat figures highlight that while inflation remains a concern for several EU economies, Cyprus provides a notable exception with its markedly subdued rate. This trend may offer welcome relief for households and businesses on the island, setting a compelling example amidst ongoing economic uncertainty across the region.

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Google Cloud Outage Disrupts Banking And Digital Services Across The UK

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

October 20, 2026

A power outage at a Google Cloud data centre near London disrupted services across the UK on Tuesday, affecting banks, businesses and other digital platforms. Google said the incident was caused by a power event at its cloud operations, with full recovery expected by around 1300 GMT.

The disruption began at 0608 GMT and affected Google Cloud services in the europe-west2 region, which is hosted in London. In an initial update, the company reported elevated error rates and intermittent network failures across multiple services as engineers worked to restore operations.

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Banking Services Hit By The Disruption

Revolut was among the most visibly affected companies, with customers reporting problems with ATM withdrawals, bank transfers and card top-ups. A source close to the matter linked the issues to the Google Cloud outage.

Traditional banks also reported disruptions. Lloyds said some customers were experiencing problems with its app and online banking, while HSBC confirmed difficulties accessing its services. HSBC added that it was monitoring the situation and noted that other organisations were affected as well.

Disruption Spreads Beyond Finance

Downdetector, which tracks online service disruptions, recorded hundreds of reports involving other businesses, including property website Rightmove and the Royal Mail postal service. The reports suggested that the outage was affecting multiple parts of the UK’s digital economy.

The incident highlights the risks facing businesses that depend on shared cloud infrastructure. Even a temporary failure at a single provider can disrupt services across several sectors, from banking and payments to logistics and consumer platforms.

Companies Reassure Customers

Revolut said it had been working to resolve the issue since it was identified and apologised to affected customers. The company also confirmed that customers’ money and data remained safe.

As cloud platforms underpin an increasing share of digital commerce, the outage illustrates how disruptions to critical infrastructure can spread far beyond the provider itself, affecting businesses and customers across the economy.

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